Tag Archives: experiential marketing

Want to market to college students this fall? Here are 3 college marketing tips to utilize during back to school to make your marketing campaign a success.

3 College Marketing Tips to Utilize During Back to School

Make Personal Connections with Students During Back to School

Back to school is an exciting time for students. Freshmen will be beginning their collegiate journey, while upperclassmen will be reconnecting with friends and reacquainting themselves with their university.

Back to school is an excellent time for brands to connect and engage with students on campus. Excitement will be high as students prepare for their new classes and the start of the semester. The trick to successful back to school marketing is to make personal connections with students.

What is college experiential marketing and why does it work? This article addresses these questions and explores reasons to use college experiential marketing.

What is College Experiential Marketing?

College experiential marketing is an innovative type of marketing that helps brands create experiences for students while branding their products. The reason college experiential marketing works so well, is that you’re providing students with an experience that allows them to emotionally connect with your brand.

Mary Angelou explains the power of forming emotional connections with others, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Aspiring musicians use college marketing to grow fan base and catapult to success. Musicians use college marketing to raise awareness, increase record sales, and promote upcoming concerts and events.

Youth culture influences music trends. This can be seen in the rise in popularity in Electronic Dance Music (EDM) with the Ultra Music Festival boasting over 2 million Facebook fans and attracting over 300,000 attendees, and that’s just one of the popular EDM festivals; the Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas has over 1 million likes on Facebook and also attracts over 300,000 attendees each year.

Marketing experiences to the youth is becoming increasingly profitable as the youth value experiences over material goods. Learn how brands are utilizing this to their advantage.

The youth mind set is changing and advertisers must change their youth marketing tactics to realign with millennials’ values. Consumer goods no longer have the appeal that they once did with this demographic; increasingly millennials value experiences over possessions. Clyde McKendrick, Executive Strategy Director at WDWC, explains this generational shift:

Experiential marketing and event marketing campaigns engage students and allow them to partake in the brand experience. These approaches will enable students to connect with your brand and form positive associations with your product.

Innovative snack companies and brands are turning towards college experiential marketing and college event marketing in lieu of more traditional marketing approaches when advertising to students. Many consumers, especially millennials, want to connect and engage with brands. By using unconventional marketing channels, you allow consumers to not only experience your brand but to add to the brand experience. This is important “as millennials feel a sense of co-ownership towards brands and products.”[1] Your brand will capture students’ attention and gain consumer loyalty through engagement and interaction.

Music festivals make excellent venues for off-campus experiential marketing, as they draw large crowds of people who want an experience.

The youth have always had a fascination with music. In fact, a large portion of the music created today is made with the youth in mind. They eagerly consume it and use it as an outlet to vent their anger and frustrations. Oftentimes the youth feel misunderstood by their parents, by older generations, and even by themselves. They listen to music to feel understood and connected with their peers and the world at large. Through music they can experience their hopes and desires, and feel reassured.

Consider college event marketing when advertising to students. Though technology plays an essential role in college students lives, it may not be the best method for reaching college students as they prefer event marketing and sampling promotions over digital ads.

College Students Relationship with Technology

It’s widely known that college students and the youth are hooked on technology. On any given day, you can walk around college campuses nationwide and see students engaged with multiple tech gadgets. According to a recent study conducted by re:fuel, college students own “an average of 6.9 gadgets per student”.[1] This is not surprising given how interconnected our society is becoming with technology.

Millennials love to push boundaries and experience new things, making experiential marketing a highly effective college marketing approach. Millennials can’t stand to miss out on the latest gossip or news, and they desperately want to be included in events their peers are partaking in. That’s why they spend a great deal of time on Facebook despite their frustrations with it. Event marketing plays on this mentality—the desire to be a part of the action—while creating fun experiences and quality interactions.

A diversified college marketing strategy with an array of marketing approaches will increase the number of college students reached, leading to a more successful campaign.

Having a successful college marketing campaign can be a tricky business. With college students, trends are constantly evolving and new forms of technology are constantly being introduced and absorbed. It’s a hard market to break into, due to this unending supply of new ideas and fads. Not only do marketers have to stay up to date with current fashions and trends, they also have to successfully appeal to a wide demographic.

Spring Break represents a great opportunity for companies advertising to students, as it allows them to engage with students in fun and creative ways, while building upon the spring break experience.

Spring break can be one of the biggest college advertising opportunities of the year. It is a time when countless students travel to vacation spots around the world to relax and have fun. Key destinations spots, include Panama City Beach, Daytona Beach, Miami, South Padre Island, and Las Vegas. The sheer number of college students that flock to these party destinations during spring break are quite staggering.

NAM Youth Marketing offers marketing to college campuses and classrooms nationwide. We leverage print, digital, and social media marketing strategies to maximize your business prospects with the college and youth market.